More teens, bikers die on roads in 2012

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When 19-year-old Waylon Ehrlich got behind the wheel of his 1999 Dodge pickup after drinking on the night of April 20, the number of teens killed on Weld County roads was about to become double what it was the previous year.

Within minutes, Waylon was speeding along Weld County Road 5 and failed to negotiate the turn onto Colo. 66, rolling into a tree and telephone pole before the pickup burst into flames. He died after being transported to a hospital. Waylon was the second former Roosevelt High School student to die in a crash within four days that month. Ramiro Rodriguez, also 19 and also drunk, lost control of his 1995 Firebird and rolled into a concrete ditch on April 16.

Waylon’s father, LeRon, spoke up immediately after his son’s death, going to the school to urge graduating students not to drink and drive. He said if his message hit home with even one teen, it was worth it.

“I told them I know you’re going to go out and party,” LeRon said. “Please be honest with your mom and dad. They would rather get that phone call than the one I got from Colorado State Patrol.”

Forty-one people died in crashes on Weld County roads in 2012, a slight increase over 2011. But the figures are prompting concern because of a sharp increase in deaths among two demographics: teens and motorcyclists.

Kelly Imus, coordinator for DRIVE SMART Weld County, said since fatal crashes hit their highest point in 2004 — when 92 people died on Weld roads — fatal numbers have leveled off for the most part.

Of the 41 people killed in crashes, six were in their teens. Eleven were driving motorcycles. The previous year, two of the 38 fatal crashes claimed teenagers. Five fatal crash victims were riding motorcycles.

“This last year was a really bad year, especially for teens,” said Imus, also a health promotion supervisor at the Weld County Health Department.

Waylon was the fourth teen to die in a crash last year. James Salazar, 18, was the sixth, after the car he was riding in failed to stop at an intersection and was broadsided by a semitrailer on Dec. 17. There’s no singular explanation for why more teens and motorcyclists died last year. But several factors, including moderate weather year round, likely played a role.

Imus said dry roads for most of last year could have led drivers to believe they could go faster.

“People tend to be a little more cautious when the roads are bad,” Imus said. “When it’s nice out, they tend to pay less attention and they tend to be less cautious.”

All of the teens and motorcyclists who died on the roads last year were males. Weld County Sheriff’s Deputy Randy Carter said that may have had to do with men being more aggressive in general.

Carter said men are also less likely to use safety measures, like seatbelts and helmets, which makes them more likely to die from injuries. Three of the six teens who died were not wearing seatbelts. Seatbelt usage was undetermined in two of the crashes. At least eight of the motorcyclists were not wearing helmets.

“It’s probably the harder thing to get people to wear helmets than to wear seat belts,” Carter said.

Inexperience, on the part of both teens and motorcyclists, could have contributed to more crashes.

Nearly all of the motorcyclists who died were between 40 and 60 years old, and all but three were single-vehicle crashes. Capt. Paul Matzke, of the State Patrol’s Weld County bureau, said many baby boomers have fulfilled their life-long desires to buy motorcycles, but they don’t necessarily take the time to get proper training for road bikes. Still, he said without looking at each person’s history, it’s difficult to tell if that was the case.

Teens were driving in all of the crashes that killed teenagers last year. Teens were also drivers involved in three other fatal crashes.

Most schools no longer offer drivers’ education courses, which leaves families to pay for private courses on their own. Imus said many families, especially those with multiple teenagers, can’t afford that. The result is that teens don’t get much training before they find themselves on high-speed roads.

“It’s not necessarily how old they are when they’re driving; it’s their level of experience,” Imus said.

As teens acclimate to driving, they’re easily distracted ­— by phones, by loud music, by other teens in the vehicle, and by lack of sleep. She said any of those coupled with a teen’s tendency to speed form a deadly combination.

“What’s causing a lot of the crashes is not always drinking and driving, but they’re definitely being distracted,” Imus said.

Carter said teens adjust to night driving more slowly, and they’re unable to gauge the speed of oncoming traffic. He said they’re also less likely to wear their seatbelts.

“Put those together and it’s disastrous,” Carter said.

Roosevelt High School and the surrounding community were hit the hardest this year with young lives lost. In addition to the two former students, Rodriguez and Ehrlich, who died, 16-year-old student Rosalba Medina was on life support for months after she lost control of an SUV on a washboard road March 22. Medina has returned home and is making improvements, according to the school’s principal, Trevor Long.

All three crashes happened within a month, and Long said administrators and teachers kept close eyes on students who were affected the most. Counselors from other schools were on call to help.

“It’s really hard to describe,” Long said. “It’s just exhausting, and it’s devastating for our kids to have this happen so close to home.”

Long said the school emphasizes anti-drinking-and-driving messages, especially around special student activities like homecoming and prom. Long said they remind teens they’re not the only ones on the road, so they need to make good decisions.

“You hope that in the end it just helps anybody to the point that they’ll take that second thought,” Long said.

When it comes to lowering the number of teen traffic-related deaths, Carter said parents are the key because their teens will follow their example in seatbelt usage, obeying speed limits and not drinking and driving.

Imus said DRIVE SMART recommends that parents make contracts with their student drivers so they can be held accountable and face consequences. She does that with her own son, who is approaching driving age. She said every time he forgets to put his seatbelt on in the car, he has to wait another week to get his license.

“I think there’s a lot of things that we could do as a community to help the teens,” she said.

Carter said although helmets are a tough sell to many motorcyclists, their usage will drastically increase the chance of surviving a crash. Matzke said motorcyclists should take the time to learn to ride or refresh their skills with courses before hitting the open road. He said motorcyclists take a risk when they just assume they know how to drive high-speed road bikes.

“They just go out and they know it’s fun to go fast, but they don’t know the dynamics of how the motorcycles work,” Matzke said.

More than eight months after Waylon died, LeRon said dealing with the loss isn’t much easier, especially because of the holidays. After LeRon spoke at the high school, the family set up a scholarship program, Waylon’s Gift, for students who participate in the Future Farmers of America in the county, as Waylon did. LeRon said the scholarship, which has drawn about $12,000, is meant “to keep his memory alive and help out the younger generation, which he was always willing to do.”